There's a very popular tendency
nowadays to emphasize the idea of Islam as a peaceful religion.
Islamic terrorists, the idea goes, are extremists who are not being
true to the Koran and the teachings of Muhammad. To be sure, there
are many peaceful Muslims in the world; but does that mean that Islam
itself is, theologically, peaceful? The documentary Islam: What
the West Needs to Know takes on that question with admirable
seriousness. It would be easy to slap the label of "intolerant"
on an endeavor like this one... but that would be pretty much exactly
missing a key point that the documentary is trying to make. No matter
how much we'd like, in our Western politically correct mindset, for
Islam to be just one more great spiritual option that people can
believe in while living peacefully with people of other faiths. But
is it true? By now, six years after the 9/11 attacks, it should be
clear to Americans that what's going on in Islam is more complicated
than we thought.

Islam has certainly a wonderful
history of cultural advances and intellectual development; of art,
science, and mathematics. That doesn't mean that Islam itself is
peaceful. Yes, we want Islam to stand for peace; but does it? Islam:
What the West Needs to Know takes a hard look at what the Koran
actually says, and what the theology of Islam really says, and what
that means in terms of its peacefulness or violence. The program
discusses key concepts of Islam as it relates to international
relations: commandments for peace vs. commandments for violence,
jihad, martyrdom, territorial expansion, the role of deception, civil
rights.

It does an excellent job of
grounding itself in the actual text of the Koran and other key
Islamic texts and traditions, as well as experts on Islam. The
various experts are given a reasonable amount of time on-screen, to
fully explain the idea that each is making; quotes from the Koran are
tied in effectively to show these ideas. One of the most articulate
and compelling voices in Islam: What the West Needs to Know is Walid
Shoebat, a former terrorist; he is able to give an insider's view of
the mindset of Islamic terrorists and suicide bombers.

Other clips come from Islamic
television, including an extended (and chilling) one in which
participants discuss the merits of martyrdom while killing Jews and
infidels... it's from a perfectly normal television program and is
given enough screen time to be clear that this is not being taken out
of context. Another fascinating segment shows an Islamic mass
demonstration getting amped up for jihad. After seeing clips like
this, it's striking to see the clips of Western politicians blithely
assuring viewers that Islam is peaceful and tolerant.

In one interesting section, several
scholars explain the theology of "abrogation": that when
there are contradictions between two commandments, the later
revelation supersedes the previous one. For instance, there is both
the commandment "there is no coercion in religion" and
"kill the unbelievers", but we learn that Islamic
theologians consider the "last word" in the Koran to be a
section that includes the commandment, the "verse of the sword,"
to kill unbelievers wherever they find them.

Another particularly interesting
segment is on the Crusades, which in recent years in the West have
been labeled as Christian wars of conquest. But what's left out of
that account is that it wasn't conquest but reconquest: the Crusades
originated because Islam had taken over (by force) vast territories
that had once been Christian, and was set to continue expanding.
Certainly the Crusades ended up doing a lot of horrible or foolish
things, but the documentary highlights the historical facts behind
the Christian-Islam conflict. The program goes on to explain how the
history of the Crusades and Islamic expansion, far from being dead
and irrelevant past events, are in fact very useful in understanding
the resurgence of Islamic movements nowadays, and even Osama bin
Laden's choice of Sept. 11 for the attack on the Twin Towers.

I was impressed by the handling of
the reference to Edward Said, whose work Orientalism was crucial in
establishing the idea in academia of a tolerant Islam. As a literary
scholar, I'm familiar with Said's book, and I found that the
documentary does justice to what I know of his work (and my own
criticism of it). Basically, Said was highly influential in promoting
the idea that anyone who criticizes Islam is racist and intolerant;
that's the conceptual framework that we're stuck with now, which
prevents us from actually critically evaluating what the religion
claims, whether it's true, or what effect it might actually have on
the world.

One thing that I'd like to have seen
more attention to is the historical background to Islam. I was
familiar with the overall historical context because I'd done some
reading up on the origins of Islam, but even so it would have been
useful to get a clearer overview before the documentary proceeded
with looking at the tenets of the faith. Midway through the program,
when the speakers start discussing the territorial expansion of the
Islamic empire, past and present, we get useful illustrations with
animated maps.

The documentary goes a long way
toward showing why Islamic terrorism is so intractable. I would
suggest it as an important documentary for anyone to watch who would
like to have a better understanding of what's going on in the world.
One of the speakers sums up Islam: What the West Needs to Know as
this: the West needs to take Islam seriously. I'd say this
documentary is a good place to start.

The DVD

Video

The program is widescreen, with a
couple of the television clips that are included looking stretched
because they were originally 4:3. The interview footage done for the
program looks reasonably clear, with some jagged edges but not too
much, and a generally clean and natural appearance. The clips from
television broadcasts don't look as good, but that's not a big
surprise.

Audio

The soundtrack is basic but
effective: the speakers are clear and natural-sounding, with no audio
flaws or any problems.

Extras

Text
biographies of the five main interview subjects are included; a
Resources section lists one book title and two web sites of interest;
a section on Texts gives publication information on the translations
of the Koran and other Islamic texts referred to in the program.

Final thoughts

I found Islam: What the West
Needs to Know to be very informative. It doesn't try to
over-dramatize or sensationalize its material; it doesn't need to in
the least. I had always held to the idea that Islam is peaceful and
that terrorist Muslims were fanatics, not representative of their
faith. Certainly that's a much happier idea than the idea that a
major religion in the world is fundamentally violent. But I'm not one
to shy away from re-evaluating my ideas... especially when I
recognize that my previous opinion wasn't based on any facts. While
I'm still interested in reading more about Islam from other sources,
I found this documentary to go a long way in challenging my
preconceived ideas, by presenting material directly from the Koran
and experts on Islam. Highly recommended.